All the Best Fiends

Midnight greetings, spooky friends!  I can't believe that we're already on the last night of this year's Halloween Hex-Travaganza, I hope you enjoyed it even half as much as I did because I finally feel like I got to play enough with my Halloween goodies this year.

Since tonight is the last night of the Hex-Travaganza, I had to pair my favorite Halloween stamp set with my favorite Halloween DSP and here's what I came up with:

It's Vlad, Agnes, and Frankie all on one card!  I had so much fun making this card!  Usually I only use one of the fiends at a time, but I couldn't help putting all three on tonight's card.  I did make it easy on myself with just stamping the images in Memento Tuxedo Black on different colors of cardstock instead of coloring them all in with Blends or colored pencils.  I embossed the greeting in white and then added some ribbon dots because the pattern makes me think of spiderwebs and I needed a bit more white on the card so the white Boo! didn't look out of place.

On behalf of Vlad, Agnes, Frankie, and all my other Halloween pals, thanks for sticking with us for the Hex-Travaganza!  I will definitely be doing this again next year (not least because I still have more cards I haven't shared yet!).

Stay spooky until next October, friends!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Best Fiends
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark
Paper:  Basic Black, Perfect Plum, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Cast-a-Spell DSP
Accessories:  Tags & Labels Framelits, white EP, Ribbon Dots, Mini Dimensionals

Vlad's Boo-quet

Midnight greetings, spooky friends!  Tonight's Halloween card features one of my favorite spooky pals, Vlad!

I can't believe we're three weeks into October and Vlad has just now joined the chat : )  I usually do at least one card with Vlad or one of his pals from Best Fiends, Agatha and Frankie, every October.  Best Fiends and the coordinating greeting set Just Between Fiends debuted pretty early in my stamping career and I still love them--we've never had another set that's quite this style.

Anyway, Deborah's card for last week's Paper Players color challenge inspired me to break out the colored pencils for the first time in a long while.  Funny story:  I have a big set of Prismacolor pencils, but earlier this year I got a wild hare that I just *really* wanted a set of 100 Crayola colored pencils (I use the Crayola ones mostly for coloring in what I've done on cross stitch patterns).  Did I need them?  Hubs would say no.  Did I get them anyway?  I think we know the answer to that.  So I got out my brand new never-before-used Crayola pencils to color in Vlad here, and then I went looking for something in another drawer and I found...a SECOND set of 100 Crayola pencils.  So apparently I went through that same thought process and just forgot that I'd already bought the pencils.  I also have a brand new set of 36 and another set of 8 that are retired crayon colors, not to mention the 24 set that I actually use with my cross stitch stuff.  And the giant box of Prismacolors.

My erratic (but probably relatable) purchasing habits aside, Vlad would like to join the Color Hues Challenge:

I knew I was using the Happy Haunting DSP, so I matched my orange colored pencils to Tangelo Twist, but then I just picked purple pencils that I liked and then decided that Lovely Lilac cardstock was the best match after I had colored him in.  I finished with a few purplish stars from an embellishment pack a few years ago.

And I remembered to take a picture of the inside!

Just Between Fiends also has a stamp that says "This Boo-quet's for You" but for some reason I wanted to do this one this time.

Okay, I've been far more chatty tonight than I usually am with the Hex-Travaganza posts, but I hope you enjoyed getting to see Vlad.  I've got ten more nights to get Agatha and Frankie inked up so that just has to happen.  Stay spooky, friends!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Best Fiends, Just Between Fiends
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Lovely Lilac, Basic Beige, Happy Haunting DSP
Accessories:  Hippo Friends dies, Crayola colored pencils, Dimensionals, star embellishments

With Love, From Vlad

Happy Sunday, y'all!  We had a good time at the craft fair yesterday and I bought a couple of fall-themed kitchen towels because I have decided to get a couple of things every year until I can deck out my entire house with fall and Halloween stuff.  Forget Christmas decorations, I wanna decorate for fall!

This morning, the hubs took Ryan to a car show so I had a nice, relaxing morning by myself.  I sat down with some apple crumb cake (let's call it a coffee cake so it's an acceptable breakfast food) and a couple of mugs of tea and had a looksie at some blogs and what do I see but this sweet challenge from the Paper Players:

Buuuuuut it's October so my brain has gone full send on all things autumnal and Halloweenie, so guess what I made.

Vlad's got a boo-quet just for you!  Y'all know that Best Fiends has to come out to play at least once every spooky season and this year Vlad got to play first.  Maybe I should just leave it out on my table until Agnes and Frankie get inked up this year too.  My all-time favorite Halloween stamp set : )  I found my "Love at first bite!" greeting in Scary Cute to make sure that Vlad was lovey-dovey enough for the Paper Players challenge, and his boo-quet has Wink of Stella on the eyeballs because of course it does.

I'm also entering this at Inspire. Create.:

Yes please, this is my favorite theme to make cards for!  Finally, I used the color palette from Sunday Stamps:

I used Gorgeous Grape, Tahitian Tide, Basic Black, Peach Pie, and Melon Mambo for my colors.  That inspo pic is making me want to do a haunted house card next.

Okay, that's it for me today.  I think I'll go watch a movie...either Muppet Haunted Mansion or possibly Clueless.  I've been on a spooky movie kick lately but for some reason I really want to watch Clueless too.  Decisions, decisions!  Have a great day, peeps.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Best Fiends, Scary Cute
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Tahitian Tide, Gorgeous Grape
Paper:  Basic Black, Tahitian Tide, Gorgeous Grape, Thick Basic Black, Unbounded Love DSP
Accessories:  Deckled Circles dies, Deckled Rectangles dies, Dimensionals, black rhinestones, Wink of Stella

A Little Brewhaha

Surprise Saturday post!  Y'all know I love making fall and Halloween cards, and that's what I have today.  Ryan and I went to the movies this morning and watched the original Hocus Pocus on the big screen : ) I'm continuing the witchy theme with this card:

I have to say, that plaid in the background was a pretty good match for the flannel shirt I was wearing when I made the card : )  Agnes rides again!  I try to get Best Fiends out at least once every Halloween season.  Agnes is my favorite, though Frankie and Vlad are pretty awesome too.  Anywha, check out the frightful Festive Friday challenge:

I used black, a spooky sentiment, a spider (hanging out among the letters in the greeting), and of course Agnes for my witchy component.  I'm also entering this at Cupcake Inspiration:

Those cupcakes are super cute!  Anyway, I love this stamp set so much (and making Halloween cards in general) that I had to see if I could create a card with Agnes and her friends Frankie and Vlad too, so here's a bonus card:

I almost always color in the images, at first with watercolor and lately with Blends, but I thought I would go for a different look on this one.  Now I need to send out Halloween cards to pretty much everyone I know : )  Sometimes I feel like I am single-handedly keeping the US Postal Service in business.  While I was unpacking our stuff from storage, I found an old purse with a wallet in it, and I had two old books of stamps in there.  Gotta love the Forever stamp idea because I can still use those!

Tomorrow, Ryan and I are going to the last day of the Texas State Fair with my brother and his family.  Trying to get Ryan all of the Texas experiences while we're here.  I haven't been to the fair in years either, so I'm looking forward to it.  Cheers!

Supplies, first card:
Stamps:  Best Fiends, Just Between Fiends
Ink:  Starry Sky, Versamark, Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Smoky Slate, Starry Sky, Pumpkin Pie, Soft Sea Foam, Pecan Pie, Ivory
Paper:  Basic Black, Thick Basic White, Plaid Tidings DSP Stack
Accessories:  Deckled Rectangles dies, Tangerine Tango EP, Dimensionals

Supplies, second card:
Stamps:  Best Fiends
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Basic Black, Parakeet Party, Highland Heather, Gorgeous Grape, Mango Melody, Cutest Halloween DSP Stack
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, Nested Essentials dies, Dimensionals, star accents

Agnes Again

Hey y'all!  I sent out almost all my Halloween cards yesterday but I do have one more I haven't shared here yet.  This was the first one I made for this week's sketch from the Paper Players:

And here's Agnes again:

This was the first card I made for the challenge, but then I decided I wanted to do brighter colors.  For this one, I used Rich Razzleberry, Kiwi Kiss/Old Olive, and just a couple pops of Pumpkin Pie.

Have a great day, peeps.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Best Fiends
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Smoky Slate, Stampin' Blends in Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, neutrals
Paper:  Basic Black, Rich Razzleberry, Pumpkin Pie, Thick Basic White, Ghostly Greetings DSP
Accessories:  Circles dies, Glitter Enamel Dots

Paper Players: Agnes Flies Again

Happy Sunday, y'all!  Hope your weekend is going well.  My Sunday morning involved pumpkin coffee cake and a huge cuppa one of my favorite teas, so I call that a good start : )  And to make it even better, there's a fun new sketch from the Paper Players!

Today's sketch is courtesy of Ann, isn't it great?  Here's what I made:

Agnes flies again!  Frankie, Vlad, and even the bat and spider from Best Fiends have all gotten inked up this spooky season, of *course* I had to make a new card with Agnes.  And I finally remembered to use the glitter washi tape I bought ; )  Agnes decided to go with brighter colors this year, including a pop of pink on her hat and her socks, what do you think?

Hope you'll give the sketch a try and upload your card on the Paper Players blog.  Have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Best Fiends
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Starry Sky, Stampin' Blends in Highland Heather, Polished Pink, Pumpkin Pie, Parakeet Party, neutrals
Paper:  Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Halloween washi tape, Stylish Shapes dies, Stitched Rectangles dies, adhesive sequins, Dimensionals

The Paper Players Design Team

Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Claire Broadwater

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

Anne Marie Hile

Ann Schach

Cindy Beach

Christy Stanford <-- You are here : )

Jennie Maier

Eyeball Booquet

Happy Fri-YAY, y'all!  I still have Halloween on the brain so I'm back with yet another Best Fiends card.

I checked my archives and poor Vlad here hasn't been featured as often as Frankie or Agnes, so he's in the spotlight today.  Also somehow it doesn't show up at all in the photo, but I used the Shimmer Black embossing powder for the sentiment so in person it's *very* sparkly.  I also outlined the images with the lighter Smoky Slate Blends marker and used the color lifter to soften the edges; that doesn't show up as much in the photo either.

I used the sketch and theme from Try Stampin' on Tuesday:

And the color combo from Global Design Project:

Yeah those colors don't exactly scream Halloween, do they?  Just got to be creative I guess ; )

Last up is the theme from Cupcake Inspirations:

Though you know what?  Those cute cupcakes remind me of another Halloween stamp set that I haven't inked up yet this year...good thing I've got ten more days to make Halloween cards!

Trick or treat, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Best Fiends, Just Between Fiends
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark, Stampin' Blends in Petal Pink, Sweet Sorbet, Soft Succulent, Crumb Cake, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Petal Pink, Sweet Sorbet,  Thick Basic White, Soft Succulent DSP
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, Shimmery Black EP, Dimensionals

I'm Just Here for the Boos

Hey y'all, happy Thursday!  I worked the last three days so I'm happy to have today off.  Watched the latest episode of NCIS this morning with a good cuppa tea and then I meandered up to my craft room and made a quick card.  Here it is.

This week's Freshly Made Sketch was just the excuse I needed to bust out the smaller stamps from Best Fiends.  Why should Frankie, Vlad, and Agnes get all the inky love?

As usual, I paired the sketch with this week's Color Throwdown:

I used Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, a little bit of white, and copious amounts of Basic Black for my card.  And I used up some scraps of cardstock and patterned paper, so whee!

Have a great day, boos!

Supplies, all SU! (many retired)
Stamps:  Best Fiends
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Thick Basic White, Old Olive DSP, Cute Halloween DSP Stack
Accessories:  Deckled Rectangles dies, postage stamp punch, oval & scalloped oval punches, Dimensionals, chalk marker, black rhinestones

Frankie Goes Trick-or-Treating

Mornin' y'all!  It is a gorgeous day here and it's cooler than yesterday so I think it's time for another cuppa tea : )  Another reason to be happy:  it's time to bust out that perennial favorite stamp set, Best Fiends!

For reals, it's not October until Frankie, Vlad, and/or Agnes make an appearance.  Frankie won the honors for today's card thanks to the color challenge from As You See It:

Isn't that an awesome collection of colors?!  Perfect for Halloween, so of course I had to use Frankie.  My Starry Sky elements look super dark in the photo, but I promise I used Starry Sky Blends and Starry Sky DSP on there.  I used the color lifter to lighten up the color around the words on Frankie's shirt so they'd still be legible.

I also used this week's sketch from Try Stampin' on Tuesday:

I rotated the sketch 90 degrees to accommodate my long, tall image.  I'm also entering this at Retro Rubber:

Any excuse to ink up some older stamps!  Best Fiends is super retro, I've had it since 2007.  The sentiment is from All Holidays, also in my collection since 2007, and the background is Wonderfully Worn, which is an old stamp background but it's been in my collection for a year or less (thanks, eBay).

Frankie also counts for the Frightfully Delightful challenge at Shopping our Stash.  So fun!

Okay, I'm off to make something else, and switch out laundry.  I'm already on my fourth load of the day, it's never-ending.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Best Fiends, Wonderfully Worn, All Holidays
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Parakeet Party, Stampin' Blends in Parakeet Party, Starry Sky, Mango Melody, Basic Black, Smoky Slate, neutrals
Paper:  Parakeet Party, Thick Basic White, Starry Sky DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Rectangles dies, stars accents

Witch Way Agnes

Hey hey, happy Wednesday!  How many of y'all took advantage of SU!'s one day stamp sale?  *raises hand* I admit, I impulse-bought a few stamp sets!  Hey, it's a reward for having blood drawn this morning, right?

But for today, I'm going back to some retired stamps!

It just isn't the Halloween season without at least one appearance from Agnes, Frankie, and/or Vlad! *gasp* HOW have I not inked up Agnes or her friends since 2017?!  Oh yeah, this was long overdue.  I had a great time today coloring in Agnes with various Stampin' Blends, and then I masked her off (I have a mask I cut out ages ago that lives in the stamp case) and used a blending brush to add in some Coastal Cabana background for her.

How fun is the Try Stamping on Tuesday sketch?

Here's the theme challenge from Cupcake Inspirations:

And the challenge from Retro Rubber:

I want to say I've had Best Fiends since about 2006, and Haunt Ya Later is from 2015, so they're both very firmly in the retro category :)

I've only got two hours left before I have to go pick Ryan up from daycare so I'd better hurry up and get some things done!  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Best Fiends, Haunt Ya Later
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Gorgeous Grape, Coastal Cabana; Stampin' Blends in Highland Heather, Old Olive, Cajun Craze, Pumpkin Pie, and Cinnamon Cider
Paper:  Pumpkin Pie, Highland Heather, Thick Basic White, Cute Halloween DSP Stack
Accessories:  Key Tag punch, Basic Borders dies, Dimensionals, Monster Bash Enamel Shapes

Vlad Brings Flowers

Okay, y'all.  Frankie and Agnes have both shown up for this Halloween season, so you knew Vlad would be joining the party didn't you?  He even brought a boo-quet.

And doesn't he just look dapper in purple!  I used the layout from Clean & Simple Stamping:

I tried to use a bat from the same stamp set for the button element, but it just didn't look right (you'll see what I did with the bat in a minute).

Check out this week's Color Throwdown:

The colors don't *have* to be Halloween-y, but they can work for a Halloween card just the same.  I ended up using both Elegant Eggplant and Lavender Lace ink refills to make my background; I saturated a piece of watercolor paper with water, then dripped the ink on and kinda just messed with it until I liked it.  I ended up with a puddle of purple water, so I made a few more backgrounds while I was at it, which you may see sometime soon. And my little bat migrated to the inside of the card:

And of course since Vlad is the last of the main trio from Best Fiends, I have to enter this over at Retro Rubber too:

Best Fiends is still ten years old and I think Teeny Tiny Wishes is pretty close to that age, too.  Very retro stamps.

Little baby is kinda making some noise so I'm going to rescue him from his crib and feed him more vanilla maple crunchy things.  They make him smell like a syrup factory, but I ain't complaining ;)  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Best Fiends, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink:  Basic Black, Elegant Eggplant, Lavender Lace
Paper:  Basic Black, Smoky Slate, Thick Whisper White, watercolor paper
Accessories:  Dimensionals, oval & scalloped oval punches, watercolor crayons, watercolor pencils

Agnes Flies Again

Frankie came out to play again last week, so of course Agnes couldn't be far behind, could she?

Yep, there's Agnes!  I used the Fab Friday sketch:

And once again the Retro Rubber Halloween challenge:

Agnes is also 10 years old since she's part of Best Fiends with Frankie (and Vlad, who hasn't appeared yet this year but he will).  This time I did the inside of the card too:

Spiders are definitely scary, but this one I can handle.

Time to go get the kiddo up and feed him so we can be off to the gym.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Best Fiends (retired)
Ink:  Basic Black, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Berry Burst, Crushed Curry, Soft Suede, Basic Gray
Paper:  Basic Black, Thick Whisper White, Old Olive, Color Theory DSP, Pumpkin Pie DSP (retired)
Accessories:  Banners Framelits (retired), Glitter Enamel Dots, Vintage Crochet Trim

Frankie Says Boo

Since I missed several days of posting this week, I just had to make a card for today (plus kiddo was a pretty good napper yesterday, so I had the time to make one).  Behold, Frankie!

Retro Rubber Challenge:

As soon as I saw the challenge, I knew I would dust off my all-time FAVORITE Halloween stamp set, Best Fiends, which I've now had for TEN YEARS.  I paired that with this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I moved down the strip across the card front because my Polaroid die is so large that you couldn't hardly see that strip behind it at all.  The colors come from a new-to-me challenge at House of Cards:

I did So Saffron, Peekaboo Peach, Basic Black, Basic Gray, and Always Artichoke for the colors.  I used Prismacolor pencils to color in Frankie; unfortunately my camera flash kind of reflected off his face and I can't take the photo without flash because it was so overcast here when I took the photo yesterday afternoon that you wouldn't be able to see anything :p  Oh well, he looks a little better in real life and maybe I'll take another picture later today.

Saturday means step aerobics day!!  And Ryan gets to stay home with his dada while I work out.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Best Fiends
Ink:  Basic Black, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Peekaboo Peach, Basic Gray, Basic Black, Thick Whisper White, Always Artichoke DSP
Accessories:  On Film Framelits, bat punch, Dimensionals, Prismacolor Pencils

2016 Showcase, Part 3

Mornin' kids, welcome to the last post in the 2016 showcase, at least for cards.  I think I'll pick out some favorite scrapbook layouts over the next few days too because it's fun to go back and look at those (which is the whole reason I make them, right?).  So let's get started.

October's pick is this Halloween card featuring Agnes, whom I dearly love (along with her pals Frankie and Vlad).

Here's a pretty Thanksgiving card for November's pick.

And I really liked two cards for December, the first one being this Christmas Magic train.

And my other favorite is this CAS snowflake card.  That wraps up the card showcase for 2016, hope you enjoyed it!

Friday Flashback: Just Between Fiends

Happy Friday!  I've got a totally seasonally-appropriate stamp set for today's Flashback, but just one problem--I'm absolutely SURE I've used Just Between Fiends before, but I can't find any pictures of it either in my personal archives or on my Splitcoast gallery.  Arrgh!  Anyway, Just Between Fiends goes along with Best Fiends (probably my favorite Halloween stamp set ever) and is a set of four sentiments.  For today's card, I picked the sentiment I was pretty sure I hadn't used yet (never dreaming I would have no photographic evidence for having used the other three either).  So here it is:

I think I'll send this to my sister-in-law, who loves purple and also frogs because she went to Texas Christian University.  Usually I color in Agnes with orange/red hair and use the purple for her outfit, but I decided this time Agnes has gotten into the wild hair color trend and has purple hair.  I think it would be fun to dye my hair some wild color, but let's be honest, I'm far too lazy to keep up with hair dye.

My colors are courtesy of Create with Connie and Mary:

Everything I used is Stampin' Up!, but the stamps retired ten years ago (eek!) and I'm not sure how old the Cast-a-Spell DSP is but it's pretty old too.  But that DSP has exactly these challenge colors with the only addition of Basic Black so it couldn't be any more perfect for this challenge.

I also used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I squished it to be a horizontal card instead of vertical, just because my stamps were so large they wouldn't fit on a standard A2 card otherwise.  I suppose I could have done a 5x7 card but honestly that didn't even occur to me until just this minute.

This also fits in with the SUO Challenges theme of Fall Fun, so I'll enter over there as well.

Okay kids, I'm off to take my sweet little doglets for a walk since the weather looks really nice today and a walk would be good for me too.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Just Between Fiends, Best Fiends
Ink: Basic Black, Perfect Plum, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Smoky Slate, Soft Suede, Soft Sky
Paper:  Perfect Plum, Thick Whisper White, Cast-a-Spell DSP
Accessories:  retired Ovals Framelits, Dimensionals